For those of you who don't know the #TPP is an international trade agreement that is being written for Disney so Mickey Mouse doesn't go into the public domain. Mickey Mouse is still worth billions and Disney is fighting tooth and nail to keep copyright restricted so it protects only the rich and powerful.

Public domain is the status of most media made more than 70+ years ago. It's why we can put an Albrecht Dürer print on a magazine cover or play Beethoven in any media without having to pay anyone.

The whole point of copyright is to protect innovation. If you spend 10 years developing something, like a cartoon mouse for instance, you should have the sole right to sell that mouse until you recoup the development cost. This prevents a competitor from making a copy of your work and selling it for less (because they have no R&D budget to make up).

What is happening now is that rich and powerful organizations are extending copyright well past any reasonable time line.

Disney is destroying the very thing that allowed them to thrive. Nearly all of their early works are taken from past works that were in the public domain (Snow White, etc.)

Think about it, Star Wars will probably NEVER be in the public domain. If you want to make a fan fiction, sell prints of a sick ass tie fighter print, or use any of the names or events in the movie for anything you have to pay Disney. If they don't like what you're doing, they can take it down.

Further more, let's say you post a video of a cop beating the shit out of a protester while people sing the imperial march song in the background. Well that's copyright material now, so Disney can pull that video off line.

The rich are, once again, fucking you and you're just going to let it happen?